Richard A. Messina: July 2011 Archives

When shooting a portrait, photographers often use
"stand-ins" to test lighting and composition before the actual
subject is photographed. Portraits sessions can easily take hours, searching
for a creative idea, setting up lights, and testing the light and composition.
Taking the photo is often the quickest time of the entire process.

Michael Wilson, the former artistic director for the Hartford Stage Company, was photographed on stage ah the Company.

This particular assignment was to photograph Michael
Wilson, the renowned artistic director of The Hartford Stage Company, who was
leaving after a stellar thirteen year run.

Not only the creative leader of the Company, Wilson had
established himself as one of Connecticut's artistic leaders and a Hartford icon.
My goal was to make a distinctive portrait to convey that point. Since Wilson
is now launching a freelance career on the national stage, and already has a
play in the works in Texas, I figured I wouldn't have a lot of time for this
photo shoot. I got to the assignment early to scout out for shooting locations
and set up my equipment.

Paul Marte, spokesman of The Hartford Stage, was kind
enough to escort me the search inside and out of the distinctive Church Street
building. Only the stage was off limits because they had a play opening the
very next day, which was disappointing because I had both my original ideas
centered on the stage. One was to photograph him half in the spotlight, and
half out, to symbolize not only his leaving, but also him launching an entirely
new and uncertain part of his career. The other idea was to photograph him
casting a long shadow.

Nick, a part-time technical crew member of the Hartford Stage, was kind enough to stand-in while I set up my lights, and worked on the composition.

After some scouting, I settled on using distinctive large
block letters of the Hartford Stage Company in the background, and moved my
equipment outside. However, as it turned out, when Wilson arrived, he was able
to convince the stage crew to give us some time on stage so I was back to the
original ideas, but without the setup time.

The technical crew of the stage was very accommodating,
and one of them, lighting crewmember named Nick, volunteered to stand-in for
Wilson while I tested the lights and composition. We got the shadow idea somewhat
working with Nick, and then began the shoot with Wilson. After a couple of
exposures, I started experimenting and improvising, which led to the photo of
Wilson that ran in the paper.

Although I think the final portrait of Wilson worked out well, I wish I had put more time into photographing him in the situation I set up for Nick. Or should I have gone with the original outside portrait I had set up in the first place? What do you think?